A Very Special Appreciation Breakfast

Photo Gallery for this post: Trillium Breakfast

Several Ontario Trillium Gift of Life Network staff and I spent this morning with about 30 or 40 hospital staff who are involved with Organ and Tissue Donation at the Trillium Health Centre, Mississauga Site, Missisauga, Ontario, Canada. This was an appreciation breakfast sponsored by Trillium Gift of Life Network.

It was an emotional time for me as I told the audience the story of my lung transplant and how thankful and grateful I was for the wonderful work they and others like them do. They rarely get to see an organ transplant recipient or receive recognition for their efforts. Mainly they only see the donor side of things, which can be heart-wrenching at times when dealing with families and their loved-ones who are potential organ donors.

I've been speaking about Organ Donation Awareness for the Trillium Gift of Life Network for about six months now and it was a great pleasure for me to finally meet some of the people that give the leadership and guidance for Organ Donation Awareness in Ontario.

I met Sue Wilson, President and CEO, Angela Diano, Community Relations Coordinator, Ida Bevilacqua, In-Hospital Organ and Tissue Donation Coordinator and Fides Coloma, Director for Central and Northern Ontario. I met Fides last spring and it was nice to see her again. Plus I had a wonderful time speaking with many of the attendees.

What really impressed me today was that almost everyone involved would have crawled out of their beds extremely early this morning because the breakfast meeting started at 7:30am. Robin Zander, an Emergency Room nurse, drove about 80 miles to be at the meeting on her day off. I also met several others who came to the event on their day off.

I managed to get a few good shots for my photo gallery. You can view these at:
Trillium Breakfast

All in all, this was one of my better days because I felt I had really done something worthwile this morning. Merv.
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